Our finalised dance routine as a whole class and with the individual group’s routines:

We were then to use the list below to assess our drama and give ourselves 2 stars and 1 wish. Overall, I was very happy with our dance as I felt that we did well to remember it and we worked well as a team to make sure that everyone tried their hardest. the 2 stars that I gave myself and the routine were – we worked exceptionally well as a team, and we had a lot of energy. The wish that I chose was that our timing could have been much better. We were a bit out of sync with one another from the start, but I think that only time and practice could improve that.

Overall, I very much enjoyed the dance module. Being filmed and then watching it back is something that I have always disliked and found embarrassing and that has not changed. However, when watching it back I was impressed by the enthusiasm and skill shown by every member of the cohort. Although the dances were not perfect, they were fun and had lots of energy and I could see that people were enjoying it. I feel that I gained many new skills from this module that I will take on throughout my teaching career.

In music we had the opportunity to try the ukulele and practice some songs. It was good fun and I did not find it too difficult. The ukulele was a good size for me and I managed the chords. Switching between quickly was difficult at first but I eventually managed it and felt very proud of myself for doing so. We then, as a class, played ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham on the ukulele which was a fantastic experience. The video is linked below:

The ukulele I was using:

In his TED Talk on creativity in schools Ken Robinson states that the creative arts are at the bottom in terms of school systems hierarchy. Mathematics and language are always at the top with the arts being overlooked because our education system is so focused on “the idea of academic ability.” This then makes those whose abilities lie in the arts feel as though they were not good at school because their subjects were not seen as being on the same level as mathematics and language (Robinson, 2007). As teachers it is therefore crucial that we work to show children that creativity and the arts are just as important as other subjects and they get praise for doing well in art the same way they would if they excelled at mathematics. Csikszentmimihalyi (n.d.) states that school does not have a positive impact on creative minds. He argues that while certain teachers encourage creativity, many others do not. In order to be an effective teacher, we must recognise the potential in the children we teach and challenge them to do their best work (Csikszentmimihalyi, n.d.). Robinson, (2007) backs this up by saying that as children grow up, creativity is forced out of them so that they focus on more academic subjects.

References

Csikszentmimihalyi, M. (n.d.). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. [Moodle Resource] Available: Integrated Arts in Education. [Accessed: 20 November 2018].

Robinson, K. (2007). TED Talk. Do schools kill creativity? [Online] Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY [Accessed: 20 November 2018].